The Hunt is On!

We had a great time this past weekend! We discoverd a new "game" to play. It's called Letterboxing. Here's a brief description of how it works (but you can find more information as well as search for boxes in your own area at web sites like www.letterboxing.org). People in the community hide little boxes in public places like parks and then they post clues on the internet to help others find the boxes. You get the clues and then go on a treasure hunt. It is a great outdoor family activity and it gets you to explore some areas in your community that you may have not known about. Each box contains a log book and a unique rubber stamp. When you find a letterbox, you stamp a page in the logbook with your family's rubber stamp. Then you use the rubber stamp in the letterbox to stamp your personal letterbox journal to show that you have found that specific box (kind of like country stamps in a passport). Nicholas loves to play hide and seek so he had a lot of fun going on our treasure hunts. So far we have found 3 letterboxes and we can't wait to go out looking for more!

The first box we found was at a local Botanical Garden. Part of the clue stated, "follow the walk along the creek toward a rustic bridge, the kind that is perfect for trolls." Nicholas was afraid of the trolls and wouldn't cross the bridge until Daddy went back to him so they could walk across the bridge together!

We found the letterbox rather easily. It was deep in a hole between two rocks. Nicholas was a good treasure hunter!

We took the letterbox away from the hiding spot to not draw attention to what we were doing. We sat down under some trees to stamp the logbooks. The box was named Lauren's Turtle 2 so the stamp inside was a handmade stamp of a turtle. Nicholas loved stamping the log books!

Once we were finished we quickly replaced the letterbox in its hiding place and went looking for another letterbox. We were hooked!

The next letterbox was called Wooly Booly and it was located at an historical non-working farm that is open to the public. There were some animals in stables and lots of antique machinery in the field. The box was hidden in a crevice in an old thrashing machine.

Here's Nicholas checking out the contents of the box. The log books and stamps are always in a ziplock bag to protect them from rain.

Here's a picture of the logbook with this box. It has another handmade stamp that says, "Puddle Splasher".


The final box we found this weekend was called Lone Star State and it was located in a cemetery. It was very well hidden in a tree, between the head stones of Pierce and Whitcomb.


After our letterbox hunt, we were tired and hungry. We went back home and enjoyed some cold watermelon and went swimming in the pool.